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Ishant Sharma works overtime with bowling coach at optional practice

Ishant slogged it out for a couple of hours, fine-tuning his line and length at the nets in Ranchi.

Ranchi: Under-fire Indian pacer Ishant Sharma whose sloppy bowling cost India the third ODI against Australia on Monday worked overtime with bowling coach Joe Dawes even as his team-mates took a day's break ahead of their fourth match on Wednesday.

Dawes was seen giving an extra attention to out-of-from Ishant who slogged it out for about a couple of hours, fine-tuning his line and length at the nets in the afternoon session at the JSCA Stadium, Dhurwa.

India's reserve pacer Jaydev Unadkat was summoned for the optional practice as he too was seen bowling in tandem with Ishant who conceded 30 runs to James Faulkner in the 48th over to give away the third ODI to Australia in Mohali.

The Australians, who lead the seven-match series 2-1, had a full practice session in the morning.

Meanwhile, heavy rains lashed the city for more than an hour in the evening even as the ground remained under cover leading to a rain scare for the fourth one-dayer.

But the weather did not dampen the mood of the Ranchiites as the tickets for the 40,000 capacity stadium were almost sold out.

This would be the second international match to be played here in a year as the newly-built JSCA Stadium had hosted its first match on January 19, with India thrashing England by seven wickets.